We all know without argument that doing drugs is both fun and cool--but can it make you a better person? The Wave seeks to answer this question as lawyer Frank (Justin Long) skips out on his wife for a night so he can drink, make out with a...
Mainstream media didn't start to take the fantasy genre seriously until Peter Jackson's highly acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy. After the massive success of the three films (which would, in turn, transform Hollywood production as we kno...
When looking at the individual episodes of a television show, especially with a property so carefully-managed like Star Wars, it's hard to find any sort of distinct authorship in the filmmaking of any of them. So imagine my surprise when I ...
After episodes of world-building, character-building, and who-knows-what-else, The Mandalorian season one finally rounds back to the inciting incident for the show. I've been suspicious of this show gathering all of these prominent guest st...
One of the clear strengths of The Mandalorian, especially in the earlier episodes, is that the eponymous character is not perfect—far from it. He trips, falls down, gets shot, gets covered in mud, and so on. We love an underdog. But i...
What might have once seemed like a distant thought, a big-budget television adaptation of the beloved literary and gaming franchise, is now mere days away. Celebrate with a trailer?
Generally, I abhor the term "filler" when it comes to television. Even when an episode doesn't make too many strides in long-term plot development, I usually feel like I get something out of the experience—perhaps it fleshes out a cha...
If anyone watching The Mandalorian had somehow missed that this show was a Western, here is an episode that is pretty blatant with all of the associated tropes. In what was basically The Magnificent Seven in space, Mando has become the "Man...
If there were a culture whose folkloric history could be treated as a goldmine for adaptable material, you'd be hard-pressed to find annals of stories and heroes to rival those of China. Not even touching upon the tumultuous and dramatic hi...
It has been hard to see most of the Star Wars stuff in the Disney era to be nothing more than homages to the original trilogy. With The Mandalorian, I feel as if fans are getting more of a remix across all Star Wars eras in a way we've neve...
So this is the kind of show The Mandalorian will be, eh? After an intriguing series premiere, the second episode of this Star Wars Disney+ original is more of a small step in terms of plot, one that doesn't move the story significantly forw...
Star Wars was never meant to be a giant pop culture phenomenon, nor was it envisioned as a prime example of the capitalist Hollywood nightmare we now live in. Yet despite the flaws and missteps of this gargantuan franchise, I've always beli...
After premiering to critical acclaim and Oscar nominations, Beasts of the Southern Wild marked the arrival of a unique and clear voice in director Ben Zeitlin, with Beasts being his first feature film. Going dark for the rest of the decade...
It seems like... just yesterday that we received word of HBO putting its Naomi Watts Game of Thrones prequel--rumored to be called The Long Night--on hold. Suspicions of mine were confirmed hours later when HBO announced House of the Dragon...
The Naomi Watts-led prequel series to HBO's Game of Thrones would appear to be cancelled, sources have confirmed to Variety.
I have very mixed emotions towards 2014's Maleficent. On one hand, it was a modern reimagining of Sleeping Beauty that seemed to focus on the best aspects of that original movie by casting a fantastic actress in the title role while simulta...
Back in maybe fifth or sixth grade, the class visits to the library became feverish rushes to claim a particular set of books. Jeff Smith's Bone comics were an easy read for kids who weren't down for some Melville or Faulkner, but for other...
I never grew up watching fantasy movies. Back then, if I was going to watch a TV show or movie aimed for kids, I was more interested in sci-fi properties than I was fantasy ones. Shows like Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Digimon, Power Ran...
America's two greatest threats are now joining forces to gain complete control over the global film industry. I hate to be the one to take Hollywood to defcon four (is that the highest it goes?) with this news, but Russia and China have com...
In perhaps the biggest surprise to come out of Marvel's Sand Diego Comic Con panel, it was announced that the half-vampire hunter will be joining the MCU with a new standalone film.
In the torrent of Marvel news from San Diego Comic Con, the House of Ideas is pulling from its '70s catalogue with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Hot off the presses from the ongoing assault of pop cultural goodness that is the San Diego Comic Con, HBO and the BBC have released a new, rousing trailer for His Dark Materials, the upcoming series adapting Phillip Pullman's epic fantasy...
Game of Thrones ended in April. A whole lot of fans were none too pleased with its resolution (myself and our Chris Compendio included), but we all move on. Like adults. HBO is also moving on, with filming underway on the pilot episode of t...
Aiming to be the next big fantasy series, in a Game of Thronesless world, Amazon's adaptation of Tolkien's high fantasy epic has found some talent to sustain its ambitious scope.
The video game adaptations continue to heat up, as Netflix's The Witcher is starting to materialize into the monster-hunting romp it hopes to be. Straight from the gryphon's mouth, we have several new images and a poster for the upcoming fa...
This year's Hellboy reboot was not a resounding success. It was reportedly a conflict of interests behind the scenes, it did poorly at the box office, and even this rabid fan of the comics and del Toro films thought the movie was just a was...
The upcoming English-language Hello Kitty movie is a ploy for Saniro to take over the world. I truly believe this and I don’t just mean dominating the product market: I’m talking about building an all-out Kitty empire. Do you ...
Coming from Sony Pictures Television, the legendary Square Enix RPG franchise will be receiving a live-action series, following in the footsteps of also-announced adaptations of games like Halo and Resident Evil.
From the producers of Bojack Horseman, Amazon is bringing us this rotoscoped trip-fest that's giving me some very good A Scanner Darkly vibes. Rotoscoping is a trend that never really took off like it should have. The colors, the surreal n...
It was bound to happen, but Pixar seems to be receiving more criticism as of late. Notwithstanding the very necessary changes at the top, there's been mounting concerns about the amount of sequels (albeit not always direct ones) being made...
Anyone who saw The Dark Tower made a poor choice in seeing a movie. If you were a fan of Stephen King's book series you were nothing but let down and if you weren't then you just saw a rushed, uninteresting film that made little sense....
Whereas the original Dark Crystal is a staple of many childhoods, for me it was perhaps a bit before my time. I only saw it within the past few years, and was of course impressed by the staple Henson wonder and production, but my adoration...
We've all been waiting for it. One of the best aspects of the His Dark Materials trilogy, which is cram full of great aspects, is the armored polar bears. However, the teasers and trailers for the new series had pretty much avoided sho...
Here we are, at the precipice of the season 8 premiere and the first new episode of Game of Thrones since August 27, 201 and the fervor is at an all-time high. Unlike some television series, GOT’s ratings have continued...
Adaptation is a tough thing to nail. You can jump from one medium to another of course, but it feels like making the leap to the movies is the final destination for a lot of original works. You don’t hear of many video games or comic ...
The movie in your head is sometimes better than the actual movie. Think of the hype engendered by seeing good trailers and clips, or reading teases of the plot and descriptions of big scenes. The imagination fills in the gaps so well that t...
Netflix keeps pumping out the anime, and now they've ordered eight episodes of an original project set in the fertile world of Greek mythology. The series, titled Gods & Heroes, will follow one of Zeus' illegitimate sons as he realizes ...
If one thing's going to strike you straight off the bat with Starfish, it's going to be that this movie is perhaps too hip for its own good. You got cassettes, rotary phones, plaid shirts, old movie theater tickets, tea, Victorian-era furni...
Sometimes a truly weird Nicolas Cage film can slide between the cracks, slip beneath the floorboards, never to be discovered. This is a pitiful shame that needs to be avoided at all costs. Between Worlds recently released on DVD and has bee...
If you play Dungeons and Dragons or any sort of tabletop roleplaying game, you’ve probably heard of Critical Role. The weekly web series involves a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors who get together and play a homebrew D&D campaign....
